Is Your Digital Agency Giving you the Best PPC Package?

There are many different types of PPC packages available to B2B and B2C brands and it can be a complex task to make sure you’ve picked the right service provider. How can you be sure your digital agency is giving you the best PPC package? Read some of our top tips below:

10 Top Tips For Finding The Best PPC Package

#1 Audits On Existing Accounts

PPC restructures can be much more cost-effective than complete account rebuilds. If you have an existing PPC campaign then your new digital agency should give you the option of having an audit on this, rather than insisting on only starting again from scratch. It may be the case that only small amends are required to bring the account in line with best practice requirements and the account will contain a rich history of data that can be used to optimise performance going forwards – data that would be lost if a new account was built from scratch. If an account is in a poor state of performance then it may be beneficial to start again but your agency will highlight this to you after an audit.

#2 Understand Spend Vs. Management

Agencies typically operate on two different pricing models, either a flat base rate or a percentage of your monthly advertising spend. Depending on your business goals and spend on the Adwords platform, one of these packages may be better suited to you. If you’re paying as much in management as you are in spend then it will be hard for you to generate a good return on investment – your digital agency should be able to identify this with you when setting up your initial package.

#3 Campaign Types To Suit Your Requirements

There are many different types of campaigns you can utilise on the Adwords display network, including search campaigns, display campaigns, gmail targeted adverts and shopping adverts. Depending on your business goals not all of these may be necessary, particularly if you have a restricted budget. Your PPC agency should talk you through the benefits of each campaign and identify which would be most suitable for you.

#4 Activity To Fit Your Scale Of Business

The possibilities with Adwords are endless. In reality you could create an endless amount of campaigns, splitting out your targeted keywords in a granular overview down to the very specs of a product, e.g. colour and size. Many business however will benefit from a more streamlined account set-up, as the budget would be stretched too thinly across too many campaigns and advert groups. Make sure your PPC package doesn’t just include the creation of new campaigns for the sake of it, and that each campaign created has a purpose that will benefit the overall return on investment for the account.

#5 Utilising Conversion Tracking

It’s important to have complete oversight of the value your PPC campaign is generating, and this should be done through conversion tracking. Typically, you’ll track goals (such as a form submission thank-you page or the checkout page) and events (e.g. pressing a button to submit a form) through analytics. If your agency’s PPC package doesn’t include any implementation of tracking then it will be hard to understand the value your PPC spend is driving and hard to streamline underperforming campaigns or optimise the account in general.

#6 Monthly Reporting

Your PPC package should include a monthly report which has key metrics, an outline of activity performed that month and a summary of proposed actions to optimise your account in the future. Without a monthly report there is no accountability from your agency and no way to ensure that activity is being conducted in an efficient way. The monthly report gives you identifiable actions that you can integrate into future activity and even apply to efforts on other channels, such as SEO or social media.

#7 Continued Optimisation And Management

Does your digital agency just set up your campaigns and then leave them running? You might not be getting the best value for your money if so. A good package will involve continuous optimisation of your existing campaigns, split-testing a variety of features including advert copy, ad extensions and targeting methods. Google Adwords is continually evolving as a platform, with new advert types and optimisation features being released, so it’s important to ensure that your PPC package involves an element of management and that your adverts are not expected to just run on their own.

#8 Google Partner Affiliation

Is your agency affiliated with Google Partners? The google partner programme represents a level of trust between Google and the agency and gives them access to dedicated account support, as well as access to the latest PPC features whilst still in beta testing, before they rollout to other users. By holding a Google Partner badge, you can ensure that your account is being handled by a capable specialist who has access to all the features you need to make your campaign achieve success.

#9 Meetings

With your unrivalled knowledge of your own business and operations, nothing is a bigger asset to your PPC campaign than you yourself! Your digital agency should be offering monthly or weekly contact in the form of a phonecall or face-to-face meeting, not just to go over results but also to learn from you anything current they should be aware of like industry changes, competitor actions, new product launches, key dates for your business and more.

#10 Retargeting

Remarketing is one of the most valuable tools in your PPC arsenal. By creating a list of users who have visited your website in a period of time, you can retarget them with tailored adverts, or increase your bid on your normal adverts as these customers are considered closer to the conversion stage, and therefore more valuable. Remarketing is a form of targeting that can be easily incorporated into your existing account activity as a form of optimisation, so make sure your digital agency is making use of this and giving you good value for their management time.

Work With Digital Ethos On Your Next PPC Campaign

Our friendly specialists are eager to help. We ensure you get the best PPC package to suit your business requirements. Get in touch by giving us a call on 03337720189 or visiting our contact form here.